Here's the Reason Brazil's Budget Balance Is Stuck in the Red

(Bloomberg) -- Brazilian policy makers this week got another stark reminder of how pension spending is bleeding public accounts on the eve of a vote aimed at curbing those layouts.

Latin America’s largest economy posted a pension deficit of nearly 3 percent of GDP last year. Without that shortfall, the federal government would have posted its first primary surplus since 2014.

"We are about to hit a wall. There’s no more time to delay this discussion," Thais Zara, chief economist at Rosenberg Consultores Associados, said in an interview.

--With assistance from Martin Keohan

To contact the reporter on this story: Mario Sergio Lima in Brasilia Newsroom at mlima11@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vivianne Rodrigues at vrodrigues3@bloomberg.net, Matthew Malinowski, Bruce Douglas

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